Cal for Proposals (Strings)

Carolyn O'Brien

Carolyn O’Brien (b. 1968) is an American composer of acoustic music and frequent collaborator with professional ensembles, artists, dancers and an advocate and composer for amateur musicians of all ages. She earned a Bachelor’s of Music Education from Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg Kansas, taught orchestra for a decade in Texas and California, earned a Master’s in Music Theory and Composition for University of California at Davis, and is now a doctoral candidate in music composition at Northwestern University and will be completing her DMA by June 2016.

Ms. O’Brien’s recent works seek to explore the illusion of limited physical space, using harmonic language, register, formal structures and proportions that widen or narrow and contain musical gestures that ricochet off the predetermined ceilings, walls and floors. Many of her works are inspired by kinetic sculpture, theater, visual art, modern dance, and tap dance rhythms, as well as instrumental combinations that create a kind of super instrument or combined timbral color. Childlike exploration and accessibility to all levels of listener, ranging from children and amateurs to the most musically educated adult, has always been a priority in her work, which is heavily influenced by her previous career as a public school teacher.

Ms. O’Brien has worked with the Left Coast Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, Bent Frequency, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), ensemble dal niente, Momenta Quartet, Trio Phonos directed by Harry Sparnaay, and Ari Streisfeld, among others. She was a chosen fellow for the Music X Festival with ensemble eighth blackbird in 2006 and 2010, the 63rd Annual Composers Conference at Wellesley College in 2007 led by Mario Davidovsky, and granted residencies at the MacDowell Colony in the fall 2013 and Blue Mountain Center in the summer 2014. Prizes include second prize in the SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Commission Competition in 2006, the annual call for scores held by Atlanta’s Bent Frequency in 2006, the IAWM Search for New Music Libby Larsen Prize in 2007, the Charles Ives Scholarship via the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2009, the William T. Faricy Award in 2011, and the IAWM Search for New Music Sylvia Glickman Memorial Prize in 2015.

Ms. O’Brien’s recent commissions include a work and position as composer in residence at the San Francisco Community Music Center for the 21st Century Music for The People via the American Composers Forum, a commission for the Society of Composers, Inc./ASCAP National Conference in 2008, three commissions in 2011, including the Anubis Saxophone Quartet, ensemble dal niente, and a commission and composer in residence position at the Lick Wilmerding High School Orchestra in San Francisco, CA. In July 2012, her work, Coil, Recoil, for alto saxophone and viola was commissioned and premiered by Jan Berry Baker and Tania Clements at the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland. In 2013-14, Nocturne, for contrabass flute and djembe, was commissioned and toured throughout the US by flutist Meerenai Shim and percussionist Chris Jones of A/B Duo. In 2014, Caprice, for violin was chosen for a Special Selection performance by violinist Ari Streisfeld at Cortona Sessions 2014 in Cortona, Italy, and was a winner of Concorde Ensemble’s call for scores and performed by Elaine Clark in Dublin, Ireland in January 2015.

Pang Chun-ting

Pang Chun-ting is a Hong Kong composer whose musical interest lies in the production of unstable sounds through the combination of pitch-based and noise-based materials. His recent outputs are characterized by high level of economy with the help of cyclic structure.

After graduating from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, he was awarded CASH Scholarship for Overseas Studies to further his studies as New England Conservatory. In 2015, He graduated from the Ph.D. program at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York under the support of Dean’s Fellowship and Dissertation Fellowship. His principle teachers include Dr. David Felder, Prof. Malcolm Peyton, Dr. John Mallia, Prof. Mak Wai-chu and Prof. Law Wing-fai.

In addition, Pang has taken part in various composition courses and festivals and this led to performances of his music by various top ensembles such as Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Arditti Quartet (UK), Ensemble Linea (France), Cikada (Sweden), Quatuor Makrokosmos (Switzerland), MATCH Percussion (Australia) and Ensemble Ascolta (Germany).

​His current projects include a piano solo piece for Canadian composer pianist Chris Goddard, a quartet for Hai-Dao Ensemble, a percussion duo for Ms. Foo Pui-yee and Mr. Thierry Miroglio and a double concerto for the duo and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

Clifton Ingram

Clifton Ingram (b. 1983) is a Boston-based composer and guitarist. He has written music for Andy Costello, Marti Epstein, Chuck Furlong, Matt Sharrock, Joint Venture Percussion Duo (Laurent Warnier and Xi "Rachel" Zhang), Ludovico Ensemble, Mothertongue Ensemble, Semiosis Quartet, and has done soundtrack work for short films, most notably for Paracusia (dir. Christopher Dreisbach). From 2010 until 2012, he was a curator at Brown Rice, a performance venue for new experimental and improvised music and arts in Chicago. In 2013, he attended the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Steve Drury, Rand Steiger, and Nicholas Vines.

He earned his BA in Music and Classics from Skidmore College, where he studied with Chuck D’Aloia and Anthony Holland, and was awarded the Herman Joseph Muller Prize. He holds a MM in Composition from The Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Jan Swafford and Andy Vores. His recent music is informed by an enthusiasm for mythopoetics and an interest in liminality.

Commissioned premieres for stringswill be featured in our 2016 – 2017 season